Criminalistic companion through the teaching year
"A Case for Inspector Smetana" is a new kind of task book for instrumental and singing lessons.
Pupils sharpen their musical instincts in a playful way as they accompany the inspector in solving the case of the missing double bass and try to answer the current questions in the "investigation". In between, there are many musical puzzles about instruments, composers and time signatures, for example, packed into simple crossword puzzles, Sudoku puzzles or coloring pictures. As the questions are always solved in the next chapter, pupils are motivated to keep at it. The level of difficulty of the puzzles is "sometimes easy as a baby, sometimes headache-inducingly difficult - usually right in the middle", as the authors describe it in the foreword. At the end of each chapter, Inspector Smetana also gives a didactically valuable practice tip, e.g. how to get to grips with difficult passages by slowing them down or rhythmizing them. At the end of each lesson there is a weekly calendar in which you can enter how long you have practiced; there are also several blank pages for additional entries.
The entire workbook consists of a folder with 36 chapters, the contents of which can be handed out to the students by the teacher on a weekly basis. The teaching year therefore begins with an empty folder, which fills up over time with puzzles, notes and tasks, so that at the end of the year there is a complete workbook to leaf through. If you want to get an idea of the workbook, you can find a trailer on the Internet: http://musikaufgabenbuch.ch/trailer.html.
This innovative task book, which was developed by the flautist Claire Genewein, the pianist Stefi Spinas and the illustrator and author Johannes Labusch for children aged 9-13, offers not only an exciting case but also lots of fun, imaginative learning and support when practicing, making it a successful enrichment for music lessons.
Claire Genewein, Johannes Labusch, Stefi Spinas: A case for Inspector Smetana. Exercise book for instrumental lessons, folder and 36 chapters to be stapled in, 104 p., Fr. 20.00, Academia Verlag, St. Augustin/ZHdK, ISBN 978-3-89665-676-6
